The burning paradox that is Gov. Bobby Jindal comes down to this: for someone who so obviously loves and embraces the private sector, it’s curious that he has never earned his livelihood in it.
Yes, we know that he “worked” for four whole months for McKinsey & Co. in 1994 but that could hardly be considered as the private sector since the firm primarily serves as a training ground for future bureaucrats and elected public servants.
To paraphrase a 1981 line from actor Burt Reynolds at his Friars Club roast, he’d probably like to thank the little people for putting him into office—but he’d never associate with them.
Of course, should he ever decide to re-enter the private sector and if Jim Parsons should decide to leave the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Jindal could step right into the role of Dr. Sheldon Cooper and never miss a beat.
Sheldon Cooper, in case you are not a regular viewer (you can catch the show on CBS at 7 p.m. Thursdays or reruns on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on TBS), is the glue that holds the popular show together. He is academically brilliant (as most would concede Jindal to be) but completely unable to relate to mere mortals (as all would have to agree is a persona that fits Jindal like a glove).
Sheldon is a fount of book knowledge, possessed of an eidetic memory and able to spout figures, dates and statistics with the comparative ease of reciting one’s ABCs but is unable—or unwilling—to perform the simple task of driving a car.
Jindal is a fount of book knowledge, possessed of an eidetic memory and able to spout figures, dates and statistics with the comparative ease….well you get the picture.
Sheldon is completely and totally devoid of human emotion, is unfeeling and unable to communicate in a normal conversation because he has no empathy for his fellow human being. Even in casual conversation, it is impossible for him to avoid insulting the intelligence of those around him, be they peers or subordinates.
Jindal is similarly lacking in those same qualities and likewise cannot speak without offending—be it civil service employees, department heads or fellow Republicans whom he now publicly refers to as being stupid.
Sheldon, when playing board games or video games with his friends, is prone to make up his own rules as he goes along—much to the consternation of Leonard, Raj and Howard, his three friends on the show.
Jindal also is not above tweaking the rules to his advantage as in his exempting the governor’s office from the state’s public records laws—much to the consternation of the media.
But most striking of all the similarities between the two: Sheldon is stubborn and steadfastly refuses to admit to the prospect that he could ever be wrong—about anything.
Jindal, too, is mulishly stubborn and just as steadfastly refuses to entertain the thought that he might be wrong about anything—a trait that goes at least as far back as middle school, according to a former teacher who described him as unwilling to accept correction even then.
But back to Jindal’s undying devotion to the private sector:
His is a strange relationship indeed.
Visit the home a professor, and you’re likely to find shelves upon shelves of books. Visit a hunter and you will find hunting rifles and mounted deer, elk and moose heads. Same with fishermen and the mounted bass that adorn their den walls.
Visit an aficionado of the private sector like, say, the governor of Louisiana and you’re likely to find…photos of smiling campaign contributors.
But you would never find him putting in a typical 8 to 5 day in a cubicle or toiling away in the workaday world like the rest of us. That is so far beneath him as to be comical to even consider.
No, he would never stoop to such a low level. That is for people who can be manipulated, used and even fired at will—by people like him.
Instead, Jindal chooses to reciprocate the private sector’s political campaign contribution largesse by selling off the state, piece by piece, agency by agency to his corporate benefactors while at the same time, selling out hard-working, dedicated state workers without so much as a second thought or a thank you.
The private sector is Jindal’s benefactor, not his employer. Accordingly, he must pander to the corporate suits like Rupert Murdoch, K12, Dell Computers, Marathon Oil, Wireless Generation, Altria, Hospital Corp. of America, Magellan Health Services, Meridian, CNSI, Information Management Consultants, Innovative Emergency Management, Anheuser-Busch, Corrections Corp. of America, AT&T, Koch Industries, the entire membership of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and most of his appointees to prestigious boards and commissions.
No, Bobby Jindal would never earn—has never earned—his living from the private sector.
But make no mistake about it: he owes his political existence to corporate America and the private sector.
And he believes with equal conviction that he owes nothing to state employees or the public sector.
Yes, he could step right in and fill Jim Parsons’ role as Sheldon and the difference would be negligible—except for the obvious cultural imbalance that would create.
Louisiana Voice 
Do you think he has Aspergers? Sheldon clearly does.
Chance the Gardener (from the Peter Sellers movie Being There.)
Oh yes! And I always thought that Piyush renamed himself Bobby after the Brady Bunch character. It was the President in Being There all along! Thanks for the enlightenment and remember that growth requires fertilizer.
Governor “Bobby”: “Our objective is to grow the private sector. We need to focus our efforts on ideas to grow the American economy…” (Charlotte RNC speech)
(from the 1979 movie Being There):
President “Bobby”: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
[Long pause]
Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
President “Bobby”: In the garden.
Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
President “Bobby”: Spring and summer.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
President “Bobby”: Then fall and winter.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy.
Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
President “Bobby”: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
I’d sing “Soft Kitty” to Dr. Sheldon Cooper anytime. Sheldon may be socially inept, but he isn’t malicious and when presented with a factual rebuttal, Sheldon has been known to apologize and change his position.
I doubt this could be said of Piyush Jindal whose “genius, ” I suspect, has been confused with brash audacity and arrogance. I compare him to Adolph Hitler, another guy who really knew how to get things done. If you want to talk Teagueing, check HIS hit list. By the way, a lot of people were in denial about Hitler’s atrocities until after the end of WW II. What will come to light in Louisiana when the Jindal Blitzkrieg completes its pillage and rape of our state, our citizens, our public services and our culture?
The main reason I shouldn’t sing “Soft Kitty” to Pyush Jindal is because being that close to him would tempt me to give him a permanent Teague. But that’s what this sorry and souless excuse for a governor does, isn’t it? He inflicts misery rather than instilling hope.
There’s no genius involved in getting what you want through lies, deceit, fear and corruption. A true genius would be able accomplish goals for the common good while being creative, honest, inclusive and constructive.
Bazinga.
I like Sheldon even with his social issues. However, that “other” character you compared the most popular Sheldon to – I dont!
I agree he could play Sheldon, but I doubt Sheldon [the character, not Parsons] could play Governor Jindal. Sheldon can only make it in the academic world and he has his struggles even there. I think Sheldon comes closer to being a non-violent psychopath than a person with Asperger’s and his IQ is at least twice that of Chance the Gardener. Governor Jindal does seem narcissistic and unwilling to accept that wisdom based on actual experience is more important than intellect. As Tom clearly points out, his experience is VERY limited. Everything in the world is much more complex than even the brightest person can imagine. Only through experience, or at least accepting the advice of people who have it, can we make the best decisions. Based on what we hear, Governor Jindal seems to only listen to sycophants. If this is true, considering opposing views is out of the question – this is certainly true of Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
Great comparison! From the second he had the Air Guard jets fly over at his inauguration, to the present, he has masterfully played the communication game of pandering to our fears, ignorance, and prejudice.With Citizens United, he will continue and will use corporate America for the simple reason that they have the money and could care less about our UNITED STATES of AMERICA. He is and will always be an arrogant little prick.
Thank you Tom for saying or putting into words for me what I’ve been trying to say for 2 years now. He (Jindal ) had me fooled for a while. I often wonder how he can sleep at night with all the wrong he has done to this State. He has and continues to inflict unrelenting pain on the hard-working educators and other state employees. He is turning the lives of some 7500 health care workers upside down. Many of these workers took jobs with the state for a lot less money that they could have made in the private sector but chose the state jobs and now the majority of these workers’ plans are gone and to me this is just a few notches below what happened to the Enron people. Well maybe I’m stretching it a bit there but there are workers with hundreds & hundreds of sick time and vacation hours that will be lost forever. I wonder what would happen if, on the first day of the company’s taking over the state hospitals, the workers would all decide not to show up for work. We know this would never happen because these health care workers are not cut from the same fabric of Jindal, and have a sense of feeling for the people they take care of. With that said you mark my words these hospitals are going to be very short handed for many if these workers will be left no choice but to take their retirement and leave. It will be very interesting to see how our legislators will react when they will be left holding the bag. Then again, who do they have to blame but themselves for letting the little tyrant run them over like a south bound freight train?
Oh it’s already happening:
http://www.thenewsstar.com/viewart/20130201/NEWS01/130201031/LSU-hospitals-leader-concerned-about-employee-drop
I just thought I would throw this out there . Just about every health care worker that is going to be affected by this sell out know just how much of there hard earned $ are going to be yanked from them!! What no one seems to be able to tell them is what kind of package is going to be offered to them , if I were a major company tacking over such a huge take over and was strongly depending on the workers of said business I would be sure to inform my new employee’s of what there pay and benefit package was going to be. I know one thing Jindal is dead set come hell or high water to have this a done feel before the session opens . He wants it out his way at all cost , seems to me he is intent on cutting this States nose of in spite of our own face.:(
Great article!
An intelligent young person can acquire book knowledge, but wisdom only comes with time. The sad thing about not having wisdom is the fact that you don’t have the wisdom to know that you don’t have wisdom.
Bobby is a prime example of an arrogant young man who’s puffed up with all of the facts he’s memorized but who’s stumped by tasks that require wisdom, like leadership. Bobby scares the hell out of people because he swiftly destroys subordinates for any transgression. The result of such leadership tactics is that he’s surrounded by ‘yes’ men, and obviously Bobby is satisfied with this state of affairs because he truly believes that he doesn’t need anyone else’s advice.
And you don’t have to look far back in history to see the legacy of leaders like that. When they leave office, their “accomplishments” collapse because they were fictional to begin with, and the (former) highly paid sycophants begin to tell what working with the “glorious leader” was really like.
I can’t wait to hear how Bobby arrived at his decision to discontinue hospice care for the poor, and how he reversed that decision only because the national press discovered what he’d done. Dying, suffering citizens don’t even deserve the dignity of a bed or the comfort of pain medicine in Jindal’s opinion. What a leader.
Very entertaining article.